Biennale leans into the present

The 2026 Venice Biennale is building its main exhibition around artists who are alive and working now, not around retrospective rediscoveries. (labiennale.org) La Biennale di Venezia said “In Minor Keys,” the 61st International Art Exhibition, will run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with pre-opening days on May 6, 7 and 8. The main show will unfold at the Giardini, the Arsenale and other sites across Venice. (labiennale.org) The exhibition includes 111 participants, and Artnet’s analysis found that more than 90 percent are living artists. That makes this edition look less like a historical survey and more like a snapshot of current practice. (news.artnet.com) The roster was developed from the curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh, who died in May 2025 at 57, and the Biennale said it is carrying out the exhibition in line with her plans and with the support of her family. Her appointed team presented the artist list on February 25, 2026. (artsy.net) (labiennale.org) That marks a turn from the last two Venice editions, which were widely read as efforts to revise the canon by foregrounding overlooked histories, especially women artists and artists from the Global South. Artnet said the 2026 list shifts the emphasis toward mid-career figures with active contemporary practices. (news.artnet.com) The geographic balance is shifting too. The Art Newspaper reported that many of the 111 artists and collectives come from the Global South, while Artnet described the overall mix as more globally balanced than recent editions. (theartnewspaper.com) (news.artnet.com) Kouoh had framed “In Minor Keys” in quieter terms than a manifesto show. In the Biennale’s curatorial text, the exhibition is described as attending to “small gestures,” “minor histories” and forms of listening rather than spectacle. (universes.art) (labiennale.org) That tone now sits alongside the scale of Venice itself, where the central exhibition still functions as a market signal for museums, galleries and curators tracking which artists are being elevated onto an international stage. The 2026 list is already being read in that light by trade coverage from Observer, ARTnews and Artnet. (observer.com) (artnews.com) (news.artnet.com) The result is a Biennale that is still carrying a memorial dimension for Kouoh, but is using that framework to present a living field of artists rather than a backward-looking survey. Visitors will see the full argument in Venice when “In Minor Keys” opens on May 9, 2026. (labiennale.org) (news.artnet.com)